Spring-Summer 2015

This module supplements the original module of Federal Government records by adding civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies. The Ford administration records in this module consist of the subject files of J. Stanley Pottinger, who was the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, which enforced civil rights laws, and the subject files of Anne R. Clarke, who was a special assistant in the Research Unit of the Civil Rights Division’s Sex Discrimination Program. The files of Pottinger and Clarke detail the implementation of federal civil rights law from 1973 through 1977 and thus are an important complement to the other Black Freedom modules that focus on the campaigns that led to the passage of landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965. Records from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library consist of the White House Office of Records Management Subject File on Human Rights and seven collections released as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The 7 FOIA collections cover affirmative action; Bob Jones University; busing and school desegregation; civil rights; fair housing; Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, Grove City College and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982.

During World War II and the first decade and a half of the Cold War, the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department assigned leading scholars to write special, classified reports about Asia, Europe, the Soviet Union, Latin America, and Africa. At the time, the reports helped to shape U.S. foreign policy decisions, and, now, as part of History Vault, the over 3,500 reports in this module provide an excellent source for studying the major areas of the World during the period from 1941 to 1961. These reports are not contained in the State Department's foreign relations series or the armed forces' official histories.
Reports on Asia focus on political, industrial, and military affairs of wartime Japan, the occupation of Japan by the U.S. following World War II, and the beginnings of the economic revitalization of Japan in the mid-1950s; the Nationalist-Communist struggle for China and Mao’s consolidation of power in the 1950s, independence for India; the Korean War; and the outbreak of war in Indochina.
Topics covered in the reports on Europe include the German war effort, occupation and division of Germany, reconstruction of Europe under the Marshall Plan, de Gaulle and the Fifth Republic, formation of the Common Market, and Soviet control of Eastern Europe.
A series of reports on the Soviet Union for 1941 to 1961 covers Soviet participation in World War II; the cold war with the West; the death of Stalin; and the formation of the Warsaw Pact.
There are also numerous reports on the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America from 1941 through 1961. Major developments covered include Palestine, African nationalism as well as economic stagnation and famine, Communist movements in South America and U.S. intervention in Central America.

The centerpiece of this module is President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Office Files. Roosevelt’s Office Files constitute the heart and soul of the administrative record of the Roosevelt White House. They highlight the domestic and foreign concerns of the President and his administration. Roosevelt's policies, responses to crises, and plans for the future were all based on both classified and nonclassified information that he received and digested from all levels of government and the public. The office files represent the materials deemed especially important by the President on the basis of content and source. Major topics covered in the files are the Great Depression, the New Deal, America's involvement in World War II, the internal workings of the Roosevelt administration, and Roosevelt's personal leadership style.
Several additional collections round out this module. These collections are: FBI Reports of the Franklin D. Roosevelt White House; Civilian Conservation Corps Press Releases; Records of the Committee on Economic Security; Department of Treasury records; and a special set of documentary records on the Roosevelt Presidency covering 50 important episodes and themes of the Roosevelt presidency.

Fall-Winter 2015

This module consists of a large variety of collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration.
One of the highlights of this module is its focus on American Indians in the first half of the 20th Century, a period that has not been studied in as much detail as the calamitous 19th Century. The two major collections on the 20th Century in this module are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes. In addition to these 20th Century records, American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 features a number of excellent collections on American Indians in the 19th Century, with a focus on the interaction among white settlers, the U.S. federal government, and Indian tribes.

The U.S. State Department Central Files are an important source of American diplomatic reporting on political, military, social, and economic developments throughout the world in the 20th century. Concentrating exclusively on those Central Files that have not been microfilmed by the National Archives or distributed by other publishers, the Central Files in History Vault contain a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats in foreign countries: special reports on political and military affairs; studies and statistics on socioeconomic matters; interviews and minutes of meetings with foreign government officials; court proceedings and other legal documents; full texts of important letters, instructions, and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel; reports and translations from foreign journals and newspapers; and countless translations of high-level foreign government documents. The Central Files also illuminate the internal affairs of foreign countries. For each country there are files on important subjects: political parties and elections, unrest and revolution, human rights, government administration, fiscal and monetary issues, labor, housing, police and crime, public health, national defense, foreign policy-making, wars and alliances, education, religion, culture, trade, industry, natural resources, and more. The countries covered in this module on Europe and Latin America are Federal Republic of Germany; Germany; Soviet Union; Cuba; Mexico; Panama; and South America.

This module will be the second set of Plantation Records on History Vault. The records presented in this module come from the University of Virginia and Duke University. Major collections from the holdings of the University of Virginia include the Tayloe Family Papers, Ambler Family Papers, Cocke Family Papers, Gilliam Family Papers, Barbour Family Papers, and Randolph Family Papers. Major collections from the Duke University holdings document plantation life in the Alabama, as well as South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.